"More Water; Mr. Graham is Still Smoldering"

For a while now, I've been frustrated because I had no 220 outlets in my garage. All that is about to change.

I got tired of waiting around for a contractor to give me a price, so I started rooting around on the web and examining the walls and breaker panels. It turns out it's fairly simple. Or I'm dangerously mistaken and likely to kill myself. I think it works like this.

1. Drill hole in garage through wall between garage and 220 breaker box.
2. Cram 8-gauge 3-conductor Romex through hole and fish it to breaker box. This will be fun, given the geometry.
3. Anchor Romex to wall to keep it from lying on stuff. That will also be fun. Previous contractors have just let it slump.
4. Attach square box, whatever it's called, to garage wall around hole.
5. Connect Romex ends to 8 gauge solid wire inside box.
6. Run conduit from box to place where receptacle is desired, fishing wire through as new stretches are added.
7. Slap receptacle on end of conduit, attaching wires inside.
8. Turn off juice.
9. Pop slug out of 220 breaker box.
10. Remove front panel.
11. Attach Romex wire ends to new 40A breaker.
12. Install breaker.
13. Install stress relief on side of box.
14. Put front panel back in.
15. Turn juice back on; see if house explodes.
16. If house explodes, give up and call electrician.

Here's what I'm wondering about. I may get a compressor some day. Right now, I only need 20 amps, max, for the welder. I assume they recommend the heavy wire and breaker to handle spikes and as a precaution. So should I put two sockets on this circuit (one for each tool), or should I put in a separate socket for the compressor?

I guess it's better to have two sockets than to worry about starting a fire in the wall or popping the breaker over and over when the compressor comes on while the welder is on. I can't imagine having a welder and a compressor running at the same time, but putting them on the same circuit is the Sanford & Son solution.

Crap.

I'll bet it's fun, stuffing 8 gauge wire in a half-inch conduit and attaching a receptacle to it. Well, maybe not. I already made my own 50A extension cord, and it wasn't that hard.

I may go crazy and do this.

I had fun today with Jim and Val and ManCamp. Took a couple of photos, but too lazy to post them.